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Old 18th March 2015, 06:18
8 Valve Ed 8 Valve Ed is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by WorldClassAccident View Post
Didn't mean to stir up a hornets nest. It is just a lot of the points you make don't apply to the Z3.
WCA, I am sorry if my post came over as a fierce reaction, that was NOT my intention. I was simply pointing out that retro fitting an old engine in a more modern car simply to disable the electronic gismos could be a risky exercise, given my understanding of the requirements of the MOT. I don't know if there is a mechanism for the tester to over-ride the requirement for fitment of headlamp wiper-washers if you remove the xenon head lights and fit halogen. I don't think so, I think the principle is you can upgrade but not downgrade.

I have no doubt that the many of most exotic features in todays cars will be common place and standard fitment eventually. Just like disk brakes and front wheel drive have become, Alvis were I believe the first manufacturer to produce a production FWD car in 1928, http://www.alvisregister.co.uk/vintage/fwd/ but the popularity then was limited, due to it's 'novel' nature. According to K.R. Day Alvis stopped production of the FWD because of adverse publicity about a couple of fatal crashes which were probably wrongly attributed to the FWD aspect of the car, but had an adverse effect on sales. So the fear of new technology is nothing new. It probably tempers the manufacturers ambitions.

How would you feel about steering a car by wire? It could be incorporated in cars right now and it has been contemplated by major manufacturers but they have held back because of public reaction, yet modern aircraft are flown completely 'by wire', most people fly without giving it a second thought. What happens if the battery goes flat for whatever reason...

I think René is concerned about making a car he is comfortable with and I don't see a problem with that. Eventually we will all come to terms with cars being completely controlled by electronics, but until then some of us find them intimidating because we are not completely familiar with the intangible. I have been reading with interest a thread on this forum about trying to coax a BMW engine to operate properly outside it's original chassis. It seems it needs many of the components from the parent car to be present even when they are not strictly part of the engine management process. Circumventing this is causing difficulty even for highly experienced software experts.
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